3 ms·

My GPA Sucks

I am a bad student. I have been a bad student for a long time, and I am about to graduate this December from a liberal art school with an economics degree and a 2.5 G.P.A. Although I am a bad student, once I "decide" I am going to put 100% into something, I achieve significant results. I've always dismissed the possibility of graduate school, and just am doing really bad in school with a current G.P.A. of 2.5 I am not lazy though, I am busy all the time with books I'm writing, practicing and performing with my band, and various artsy project that I am very proud of. I have just "decided" today that I want to go to grad school for computer science. I don't feel that my major will really hurt my chances of getting into a computer science program, but I do feel that my G.P.A. will really hurt me. I really truly want to become a software engineer. Do you guys think getting into a graduate program for computer science will be an impossible thing? Will there be a significant road blocks in my software engineering career without a masters in computer science? Please help me Hacker News!

gexla 15y ago
If you are a bad student then going for more school seems like a bad idea. Aside from that, you are missing out on two more years of income while adding more debt. Academics won't make you into a software engineer, just start building.
- throwawayregret 15y ago
  Thanks for your tip. Is there a significant difference in career opportunities between programmers with just a BS in Comp Sci as opposed to a Masters?
  - tikhonj 15y ago
    As far as I can tell, no. At least not in the Valley. There are some exceptions, I imagine, but they are all probably fairly specialized. A BS will get you almost everywhere an MS will. You're much better off just learning to program yourself--it's easy and fun--and getting a nice entry-level position. The job market is literally crazy right now--I get tons of email about random positions, and I'm just finishing my second year of school. What you should do is spend some time on a programming project of your own. Write something you've always wanted. This will both help you learn and give you something to show to potential employers. If you turn out to like programming, this will get you a fun job that pays well more quickly than a degree. If it turns out you don't like programming, than it will be much easier to find something else than if you're doing a Masters. I'm only familiar with the graduate program at my university, but it seems all the graduate students have a good deal of experience both from their undergrad classes and outside of class. I am not sure it is a good fit for somebody who has not spent a lot of time programming and studying CS already. Since I'm not a graduate student I could be mistaken here, but that's how it really seems.
  - gexla 15y ago
    You could probably find a bunch of graphs which would show you something like this, but there are many different approaches. Go to Github and look at people who have started some of the top projects (or participate in them) and you will be looking at people who largely have no problem landing great gigs. Just do what these guys are doing. Take some time to learn your craft well. Start some projects. Throw some stuff up on Github. Participate in open source projects. Do lots of networking. Profit.
    - throwawayregret 15y ago
      I just wrote my first Tetris game! I will look into Github, thanks!
    - throwawayregret 15y ago
      How do you know which ones are top projects? I clicked explore on Github, but I can only see the top twenty or so projects, but nothing else.
      - gexla 15y ago
        Not necessarily the top projects, but rather the most visible in each area. For example, if you are going to try building an app in Ruby, then there will be a bunch of things you will use to build that app. Most of those things will probably be on Github. Those are the projects to watch and perhaps contribute to. Establish yourself as an authority, or at least create some visibility for yourself. Again, you do this by writing code, publishing code, writing articles, meeting people, etc. Another way to do this would be to make a name for yourself in less mature but trending areas. For example, NodeJS is very new and there are a lot of problems which still need to be solved in that ecosystem. Pick a problem, run with it and then if you can nail it then you have just established some authority for yourself. Keep building up this profile and you will have no problems landing work.

My GPA Sucks

gexla 15y ago

If you are a bad student then going for more school seems like a bad idea. Aside from that, you are missing out on two more years of income while adding more debt. Academics won't make you into a software engineer, just start building.

throwawayregret 15y ago
Thanks for your tip. Is there a significant difference in career opportunities between programmers with just a BS in Comp Sci as opposed to a Masters?
- tikhonj 15y ago
  As far as I can tell, no. At least not in the Valley. There are some exceptions, I imagine, but they are all probably fairly specialized. A BS will get you almost everywhere an MS will. You're much better off just learning to program yourself--it's easy and fun--and getting a nice entry-level position. The job market is literally crazy right now--I get tons of email about random positions, and I'm just finishing my second year of school. What you should do is spend some time on a programming project of your own. Write something you've always wanted. This will both help you learn and give you something to show to potential employers. If you turn out to like programming, this will get you a fun job that pays well more quickly than a degree. If it turns out you don't like programming, than it will be much easier to find something else than if you're doing a Masters. I'm only familiar with the graduate program at my university, but it seems all the graduate students have a good deal of experience both from their undergrad classes and outside of class. I am not sure it is a good fit for somebody who has not spent a lot of time programming and studying CS already. Since I'm not a graduate student I could be mistaken here, but that's how it really seems.
- gexla 15y ago
  You could probably find a bunch of graphs which would show you something like this, but there are many different approaches. Go to Github and look at people who have started some of the top projects (or participate in them) and you will be looking at people who largely have no problem landing great gigs. Just do what these guys are doing. Take some time to learn your craft well. Start some projects. Throw some stuff up on Github. Participate in open source projects. Do lots of networking. Profit.
  - throwawayregret 15y ago
    I just wrote my first Tetris game! I will look into Github, thanks!
  - throwawayregret 15y ago
    How do you know which ones are top projects? I clicked explore on Github, but I can only see the top twenty or so projects, but nothing else.
    - gexla 15y ago
      Not necessarily the top projects, but rather the most visible in each area. For example, if you are going to try building an app in Ruby, then there will be a bunch of things you will use to build that app. Most of those things will probably be on Github. Those are the projects to watch and perhaps contribute to. Establish yourself as an authority, or at least create some visibility for yourself. Again, you do this by writing code, publishing code, writing articles, meeting people, etc. Another way to do this would be to make a name for yourself in less mature but trending areas. For example, NodeJS is very new and there are a lot of problems which still need to be solved in that ecosystem. Pick a problem, run with it and then if you can nail it then you have just established some authority for yourself. Keep building up this profile and you will have no problems landing work.